There is a very famous saying in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and it’s attributed to Carlson Gracie Sr. What he said decades ago was ” take a black belt, punch him in the face and he becomes a brown belt. Punch him in the face again and he becomes a purple belt “

For those who don’t know Carlson Sr. was essentially the second champion in the Gracie family. After his Uncle Helio got a bit older into his mid to late 40s and was no longer able to fight the challenge matches that he had the previous 25 years, Carlson took over and was the family Champion through most of the 60s and into the early 70s. He also was instrumental in bringing modern training concepts into the traditional world of valle tudo ( in other words traditional Brazilian MMA). Carlson built one of the first teams both to compete in Jujitsu and to compete in MMA, so he understood a Jujitsu player getting punched in the face and what can happen.

Essentially his point was that you needed to train in the situation of getting punched otherwise if it was your first time your skill goes out the window. He was an early advocate of cross training to some level and to do all your traditional Jiu-Jitsu stuff while punching or getting punched. and he and his team were incredibly successful at doing so.

What Carlson was pointing out that you could have an awesome game plan and awesome skill to pull it off, but if you have not gotten rid of the novelty of incoming violence – including Getting punched or getting struck in the face over and over again – then there is a good chance your game plan and your skill goes out the window. And this is true across the board in all areas of self-preservation and self-defense, to include shooting.

Shooters need to understand this concept almost more than anybody else, mostly because it is not part of almost any shooting training course. The single most overriding reason being that in almost all shooting training there is no oppositional pressure. There is no one putting direct physical pressure on your ability to shoot. Unfortunately, in the real world the bad guy is always doing exactly that, and his oppositional pressure may very well include hitting you in the face over and over and over and over again. What you will quickly find is that your sub second draw suddenly after a punch in the face becomes a two+ second draw. Get punched again and now you’re probably not even finishing the draw and there’s a very good chance that your gun that you brought to the fight is now up for grabs to whoever can control it.

Of course, there is someone out there reading this and going “I never let anyone get that close to me. I will shoot them long before they can punch.” Stop living your self-indulgent and mastubatory John Wick fantasies. This is impossible in the real world. Please try to shout “Get back from me! I am in fear for my life!” while you are in line at the grocery store. Or the bank. Or TSA. Uniformed people will very quickly get VERY close to you and you will have lots of ‘splaining to do.

If you think you can maintain distance at all times, it is very easy to prove. Get a video out, some safetly equipment, and try it out on someone who has incentive to get close. I have spenbt 20+ years working this problem, and have seen a lot of people try to do it. I know how it will go 90% of the time.

So take some time to make sure your draw – or whatever self-defense tactics you prefer – can withstand a punch in the face.